2025 Nationals in Stevens Point, Wisconsin: Practice Day 1

The Gophers are off to a great start at the National Collegiate Soil Judging Contest hosted by University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, in the land of sand and spodosols! We are excited to continue to dig into the glacial geology of the area and all the fascinating soils the contest hosts have selected.

For Day 1 of practice, we had a few sites on the edge of the western extent of the Green Bay glacial lobe. We saw soils formed on kames, outwash plains, and till plains.

A Dystrudept formed on a kame in a once-logged area. Umbric epipdeon!

Incredible stratification on an Endoaquept formed on an outwash plain.

The control face of the same soil. Check out that wavy boundary…cryoturbation from a time when this soil was experiencing permafrost conditions?

The Gophers on an outwash plain…some eolian sand parent materials on top here.

The proud Minnesota flag!

We ended the day with dinner and an area orientation talk by Bryant Scharenbroch of UWSP. We took lots of notes and asked many questions, as UMN is known for. A big thank you goes out to all of the donors who made our travel to this contest possible. We are grateful to the contest hosts for all their work and commitment. We are excited to dig deep! Go Gophs!

2025 NACTA Contest in Canyon, Texas: Off to a Great Start

This week, five soil judgers are in Canyon, Texas for the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture (NACTA) soil judging contest! We described four practice pits and spent the afternoon exploring Palo Duro State Park. 

Monday morning was spent in loess hills 15 minutes west of Palo Duro Canyon. The team observed the pedogenesis of calcium carbonate accumulation down a portion of a catena (and observed the rest on Tuesday). 

This profile was on the hillslope’s shoulder and besides having amazing colors (5YR 3/4 and 5YR 4/6s), we saw secondary calcium carbonate accumulation starting at 40cm.

We then went downslope to the backslope and found secondary carbonates starting at 22cm - closer to the surface due to a higher slope, which causes more runoff and less infiltration. These pits, and two others described on Tuesday, illustrate the effect of slope and water infiltration on depth to carbonates. In our part of Minnesota, we do not see carbonate accumulations like these, so we had a blast learning about these!

After lunch, we visited Palo Duro Canyon. This is the second largest canyon in the USA and has some fascinating geology. Our highlights were the “red beds” at the base of the canyon and gypsum bands. These Gophers look forward to learning more about the High Plains throughout the week. Stay tuned!

The 2025 NACTA Team in Palo Duro Canyon. Go Gophs!

The Road to Nationals: Spring Semester 2025 Kickoff

 It is cold out and the soil is frozen, but we’ve got a room full of smiling soil judgers for our weekly meeting. We’re back from winter break, and we are gearing up for Nationals in Stevens Point, WI in late April! At last week’s meeting, we set our agendas for the rest of our meetings leading up to the contest–with a lineup of texture practice, geologic history, and exploring the soil series of Stevens Point. We also welcomed some new soil judgers to the crew!

This week, we’re getting our social media and fundraising committees together to get the word out about soil judging and support our travels. And then playing Soil Jeopardy!

Video: The University of Minnesota's Soil Judging Team Moves on to the National Competition

The University of Minnesota Soil Judging Team has recently been featured in a video made by UMN Strategic Communications student Harriet Bennett! The piece highlights how the team has been preparing for the national contest in April 2025 after qualifying at the regional contest this fall. Check out the video above for insights on the road to Nationals - including an in-depth look at one of our meetings and insights from our team members. Thank you, Harriet, for highlighting the team! Please feel free to share the video using this link.

Give to the Max Day 2024: Support Transformative Soil Experiences

This fall, the UMN Soil Judging Team placed in the top 3 at the Region V Soil

Judging Contest–and qualified for the National Contest! This spring, the team will

travel to Stevens Point, Wisconsin to compete at the national level and expand

knowledge and love of soils. We need your help getting there!

Travel to soil judging contests is funded exclusively by donations. National and

regional contests are some of the most impactful experiences that soil judgers have

the opportunity to participate in. Judgers spend a week immersed in the soil of the

contest area, completing 4-5 practice pits per day. They learn about the geologic

history of the area, observe how land use impacts soils, and ask many good

questions (a UMN trademark). Competition day provides the opportunity to

interact with students from universities across the country and cultivate strong

team spirit and cohesion.

This year, the soil judging team has almost doubled in size–a testament to the fierce

passion, infectious enthusiasm, and commitment of the students. We’re asking for

your donations this Give to the Max Day to support transformative field experiences

for these soil judgers. You can make your contribution at this link:

https://makingagift.umn.edu/give/fund.html?id=8850.

Soil judging, and your gift, helps to nourish the next generation of soil,

agricultural, and environmental science professionals. Thank you so much

for your support on the road to Nationals!

With all our gratitude,

Amital Shaver, Co-Captain

2024 Region V Soil Judging: On to Nationals From Great Bend, Kansas!

We are excited to be back here on the soil judging blog – and to share the team’s experiences from this year’s regional contest at the end of September, hosted by Kansas State University in Great Bend, Kansas.

This year’s team of 8 students earned second place in team judging and third place overall to qualify for this spring’s National Contest in Stevens Point, Wisconsin! We had a judger place in the top ten. Go Gophers! We will be joined by fellow Region V teams Kansas State University (1st place) and Iowa State University (2nd place) in April in Wisconsin. 

This year’s regionals team. L to R: Ava McCune (co-captain), Brynn Miller, Annika Selstad, Tara Bluni, Anna Windels, Amital Shaver (co-captain), Finn Porter, Nic Jelinski (coach), Jenna Christenson. 

Located at a bend in the Arkansas River (which we learned from locals is pronounced ar-KAN-sas, like the state we were in), Great Bend sits between a large sand sheet and the Cheyenne Bottoms, a 64-square-mile wetland complex and an important stopover site for migratory birds. From dunes to floodplains, the team was able to dig into some diverse soils. In this year’s contest, the judgers were asked to assess pits for Hydric Soil Indicators. Our eyes were peeled for redoximorphic features!

A hydric soil in an interdune. Classification was tricky and debated with these! Check out those concentrations in the fourth horizon.

The dunes, covered in prickly vegetation, were often the land of Ustipsamments, and the team worked on honing clay percentages in sandy soils.

An Ustipsamment formed on a dune with 19% slope. With lamellae…!

Lamellae!

Eolian sand over alluvium parent materials.

We headed out to the Cheyenne Bottoms and got our hands on some much darker and clayier soils. The Gophers were excited to see some natric horizons, as well as beautiful gypsum rosettes. The presence of salts led to some alphabet soup horizons – Btsskyzg, for example.

Checking out structure in a floodplain soil.

Preparing samples for texturing.

Very different structure than in dunal soils.

The team loved group judging of complex pits, engaging in discussion and sharing interpretations. We loved getting into the nitty gritty during daily team meetings, learning more and more about area geology, and becoming one with our texture triangles.

One of the team’s first group pits. Coming to a consensus.

Color and texture team getting ‘er done.

We extend a huge thank-you for the generosity of donors, without which the incredible and formative experiences of soil judging would not be possible. The opportunity to travel, see soils nationwide, and connect with fellow students passionate about soil scientists helps cultivate the next generation of bridge-builders and soil, agricultural, and environmental science professionals. Thank you so much.

Practicing assessing slope with a clinometer.

Captains with our award wearing, of course, the classic Minnesota flannels.

2021 Region V Soil Judging: First days in Crookston, MN

We are thrilled to have a team of 12 students competing in this year's Region V Soil Judging competition hosted by the the University of Minnesota in Crookston, MN.  

The 2021 Region V team before leaving campus on Sunday morning.

This will be the first competition experience for most of the team, and they couldn't be more excited!  Huge thanks to our donors and supporters for making this learning experience possible.

Our spirits are high and our hands are dirty after 2 days of practice across the striking landscapes and soils formed by Glacial Lake Agassiz in the Red River Valley in NW Minnesota.  As we have traversed one of the flattest landscapes in the world, students have built new skills identifying subtle landforms and slopes on the lake plain.

Our first day of practice was focused on soils that have developed on the former beach ridges and beach complexes deposited by the the shifting margins of the lake.  For our second day of practice, we saw beautiful examples of soils formed in glaciolacustrine parent material on the flat lake plain.  

We are excited for one more day of practice before the competition!

 

A Calciudoll formed on a beach ridge complex

Practice using a clinometer to measure slope

A Calciudoll formed in the lake plain, notable for varves visible at the bottom of the profile.

These thin layers are varves - thin annual layers of sediment